Israel’s men in Washington, DC hindering Iran nuclear talks: ex-US intelligence official

A former American intelligence official says Israel’s men in Washington, DC are creating hurdles in the way of a final agreement between the P5+1 and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear energy program in order to gain the Zionist hegemony in the Middle East.   

Scott Rickard, an international peace activist and ex-US intelligence linguist in Florida, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Sunday while commenting on US Secretary of State John Kerry’s request to Republicans for “hold[ing] their fire” until they see a final agreement later this year.

Kerry said the agreement reached in Switzerland earlier this month between the P5+1 and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear work is just an outline of a tentative accord and the Republicans should wait for the final version.

“What we see here is [that] the US has agreed for over two years to actually lift sanctions against Iran, but Iran cooperated for the nuclear inspections as well as the actual curtailment of additional nuclear research and development,” Rickard said.

“Iran has complied with these actual demands for the last, but yet the West continues to impose the same sanctions, and in fact additional sanctions have recently been – in the last week – imposed by the European Union,” he added.

“Now the reason behind this [efforts against Iran nuclear deal] is that because… you have Israel’s men in Washington, DC as well as at the European Union,” he stated.

“What that really means is that the influence of the Israel lobby and the influence of the Zionist movements in the European and American governments is so strong that regardless of what the people want and regardless of what the international community agrees to, these individuals are much along the same lines, let’s say Netanyahu and others in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, [who] have imposed upon Iran  and other countries in the region in order to gain hegemony in the region as well as to maintain the economic dominance,” Rickard noted.

“So the real underlined issues here are both the geopolitical and economic warfare that has really continued against countries like Iran for well over a century due to the fact that the Western influence and the Western imperialism that really run the finances of the world have been dominating the region, not only the Middle East, but throughout Africa and certainly throughout the Asia and Persia,” he observed.  

Iran and the P5+1 group – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – along with officials from the European Union reached a mutual understanding on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2.

The two sides will now start drafting a final accord, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which is expected to come by the end of June.

If a final deal is reached, it would lift all international sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic in exchange for certain steps Tehran will take with regard to its nuclear program.

Republicans have slammed the nuclear understanding, saying lifting sanctions on Iran would provoke Israel into an armed conflict with Tehran.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on the bill, which would give Congress two months to review a nuclear deal with Iran before any Congress-mandated sanctions are removed.

Rickard  said that “at the end of the day, what you really see here is, unfortunately, an illegitimate and untrustworthy approach by the Americans and the European Union whereby they are agreeing to things that may not, and probably will not, come to solutions.”

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